African payments giant Flutterwave has laid off around 30 employees, roughly 3% of its workforce. This move comes three months after the company announced it would focus on its main revenue sources: remittances and enterprise services. This shift also led to the closure of their product Barter in March.
Flutterwave confirmed the layoffs but didn’t specify which teams were affected.“After a thorough analysis of our strategic priorities, including a renewed focus on enterprise customers and remittances, we came to the conclusion that some roles within the organisation are redundant,” the company said in a statement to TechCabal.
The layoffs were announced during a town hall meeting on Monday, according to sources familiar with the matter. These roles were linked to products that Flutterwave has decided to discontinue.
The company assured that it would provide an average of three months’ gross salary as severance, varying by country, and would compensate for any unused leave days.
Back in October, Flutterwave had revealed that enterprise services were its biggest revenue generators, while retail products contributed very little.
“Since our founding eight years ago, we have not had to implement a workforce reduction plan, but it became a necessary step in this instance in order to align our current resources with our go-forward strategy and improve our operational efficiency.” the company stated.
In 2024, after reorganising its executive team, Flutterwave began revisiting plans for a public listing that had been postponed in 2022 and 2023. CEO Gbenga Agboola told Semafor in April 2024, “Our goal is to be IPO-ready, ensuring strong corporate governance and smooth operations. We aim to be a long-term company in Africa, for Africa, building the right infrastructure for the next decade and beyond.”